William Atherton
William Atherton Knight Jr. (born July 30, 1947) is an American actor, best known for portraying Richard Thornburg in Die Hard and its sequel and Walter Peck in Ghostbusters.
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
Oscar
1991
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
When the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.
Cleanin' Up the Town: Remembering Ghostbusters
The documentary that tells us the full story from where it all started through to the future of the "Ghostbusters" franchise.
Jinn
From the beginning, stories of angels and men have captured our imaginations and have been etched into our history crossing all boundaries of culture, religion, and time. These two races have dominated the landscape of modern mythology for countless centuries, almost washing away the evidence that a third ever existed.
Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
Two guys get a billion dollars to make a movie, only to watch their dream run off course.
The Girl Next Door
In a quiet suburban town in the summer of 1958, two recently orphaned sisters are placed in the care of their mentally unstable Aunt Ruth. But Ruth's depraved sense of discipline will soon lead to unspeakable acts of abuse and torture that involve her young sons, the neighborhood children, and one 12-year-old boy whose life will be changed forever.
Hacia la oscuridad
Deals with 90 minutes in a kidnapped hostage's life, and the frustration his family, a special ops team, and a man in charge of delivering the ransom money all feel as they rush to save him.
Into the Sun
After the assassination of Tokyo's Governor by Yakuza members, the CIA bureau chief for Tokyo puts out a call to an agent that had been raised in Japan and trained by ex-Yakuza. Using his former ties, he quickly determines that a war is brewing between old-guard Yakuza members and a young, crazed leader with ties to the Chinese Tong.
Who's Your Daddy?
An adopted Ohio high school senior discovers he is the inherited heir to a porn empire. Dropped into a bitter power struggle, his new flock of beautiful co-workers come to his aid.
The Last Samurai
Adventure drama starring Tom Cruise as a disillusioned civil war veteran named Captain Nathan Algren. The depressive Algren is reluctantly a misson from the Japanese Emperor to kill a rebellious Samurai. Yet he is so fascinated by the knowledge and life of the Samurai that he cannot go on with his mission.
Race to Space
In the 1960s a young woman works at NASA as an animal trainer responsible for the chimpanzee who will go into space.
Burning Down the House
A down-on-his-luck film director sets fire to his home so he can collect the insurance money and fund his new movie. But crime apparently does pay, because once the rumor mill gets wind of his plans, everyone suddenly wants a slice of his new project's pie.
The Crow: Salvation
Alex Corvis returns to the world of the living to solve the murder of a young woman that he was wrongly accused of killing. Alex follows the crow into the police department's evidence room, where he discovers that Lauren was killed by a group of corrupt cops.
Bread and Roses
Maya is a quick-witted young woman who comes over the Mexican border without papers and makes her way to the LA home of her older sister Rosa.
Mad City
A misguided museum guard who loses his job and then tries to get it back at gunpoint is thrown into the fierce world of ratings-driven TV gone mad.
Hoodlum
In 1934, the second most lucrative business in New York City was running "the numbers". When, Madam Queen, the powerful woman who runs the scam in Harlem, is arrested. Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson takes over the business and must resist against the invasion from merciless mobster Dutch Shultz.
Bio-Dome
Moronic best friends get themselves locked inside the Bio-Dome, a science experiment, along with a group of environmental scientists for one year.
The Pelican Brief
Two Supreme Court Justices have been killed. Now a college professor, who clerked for one of the two men, who's also having an affair with one of his students, is given a brief by her, that states who probably, wanted to see these two men dead. He then gives it to one of his friends, who works for the FBI...
Oscar
Angelo "Snaps" Provolone made his dying father a promise on his deathbed: he would leave the world of crime and become an honest businessman. Despite having no experience in making money in a legal fashion, Snaps sets about to keep his promice.
Grim Prairie Tales: Hit the Trail... to Terror
Two travelers meet on the open prairie, and pass their time together by trading stories with each other. Their tales become a sort of competition, each attempting to relate something which might disturb the other.
Die Hard 2
John McClane is forced to battle mercenaries who seize control of an airport's communications and threaten to cause plane crashes if their demands are not met.
Buried Alive
A husband finds out that his wife and her lover are trying to kill him.
Die Hard
New York cop John McClane gives terrorists a dose of their own medicine as they hold hostages in an LA office building.
No Mercy
An unconventional undercover Chicago cop and his partner are recruited to commit the murder of a New Orleans criminal kingpin.
Real Genius
An uptight teenage prodigy enters a top engineering college, but feels awkward among the freewheeling students. When a professor aims to turn their laser project into a military weapon, he and his offbeat roommate plot to ruin the plan.
Ghostbusters
A trio of university parasychologists lose their research grant and decide to open their own business, "Ghostbusters," and almost at once are summoned to investigate the strange happenings in a Central Park West apartment. What they discover is that all Manhattan is being besieged by other worldly demons
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
A dedicated schoolteacher spends her nights cruising bars, looking for abusive men with whom she can engage in progressively violent sexual encounters.
The Hindenburg
Colonel Franz Ritter, a former hero pilot now working for military intelligence, is assigned to the great Hindenburg airship as its chief of security. As he races against the clock to uncover a possible saboteur aboard the doomed zeppelin he finds that any of the passengers and crew could be the culprit.
The Day of the Locust
Hollywood, 1930s. Tod Hackett, a young painter who tries to make his way as an art director in the lurid world of film industry, gets infatuated with his neighbor Faye Greener, an aspiring actress who prefers the life that Homer Simpson, a lone accountant, can offer her.
The Sugarland Express
Lou-Jean, a blonde woman, tells her husband, who is imprisoned, to escape. They plan to kidnap their own child, who was placed with foster parents. The escape is partly successful, they take a hostage, who is a policeman and are pursued through to Texas.
Class of '44
The "terrible trio" of "Summer of '42" has graduated high school. Now the real learning begins. For Benjy, 1944 is a time to serve his country.
The New Centurions
An idealistic rookie cop joins the LAPD to make ends meet while finishing law school, and is indoctrinated by a seasoned veteran. As time goes on, he loses his ambitions and family as police work becomes his entire life.